But note another sentence in the Telegraph report: Mockridge's "departure is part of a major shake-up which could also see the departure of James Harding, editor of The Times."

Wow! Can it really be so? Harding says not. After I texted him to ask, he replied: "It isn't so."

A separate Telegraph article had cited "sources" who speculated that Harding could move across to the Wall Street Journal. Evidently, the speculation was incorrect.

Harding, who was appointed as Times editor in December 2007, was, at 38, the youngest person to get the job. He had previously been the paper's business editor for a year after spending 13 years at the Financial Times during which he opened the FT's Shanghai bureau. He also served as the paper's Washington bureau chief.

If he should go to the WSJ, he would be following in the footsteps of his predecessor as Times editor, Robert Thomson. And it is Thomson who is now slated to become head of the new News Corporation publishing division.